Hands up if you’ve heard this one before — Brett Lawrie will move to second base.

That was the word — more or less — from manager John Gibbons at 4:30 p.m., during his pre-game scrum with the media.

Gibbons wouldn’t come right out and say that Lawrie — on a rehab assignment for a sprained ankle that has kept him out of the lineup since May 27 — will be the Jays’ new second baseman. But he laid the foundation for the move like an expert brick-layer working on a foundation.

It is the Jays’ plan of the moment and, just like the fickle weather in Chicago, you can wait a half hour and find they have moved in another direction altogether.

Right now, however, the plan calls for Lawrie to hone his craft at triple-A Buffalo and when he returns to the Jays following the all-star break, he will most likely line up at second.

Gazing into his crystal ball and rhapsodizing about the athleticism that the duo of Lawrie and shortstop Jose Reyes would bring to the keystone combo, Gibbons was all but licking his chops in anticipation.

“When he comes back, there’s a chance he could do it. We’re going to let him do it down there a little bit,” Gibbons said. “We’ll kind of look at it when he comes back.

“We think he’s a really good third baseman, but he could add a ton of range at second base and combine with Reyes up the middle.”

Okay, so if Lawrie moves back to second, where he was playing when the Jays acquired him from Milwaukee, just who takes over at third?

The answer is not one player, that third would continue to be a revolving door.

“He could play a little bit,” Gibbons said. “He’s not going to be a full-time guy (at third).”

And Lawrie would stay at second?

“Probably. If we decide he’ll go to second base, he’d be a fixture there, yeah.”

Up to now, second base has been a black hole for the Jays. They have had four different players man the position this season — Izturis, Emilio Bonifacio, DeRosa and Munenori Kawasaki — and all have flaws of one sort or another. Either their hitting isn’t up to snuff, or their fielding or both.